Monday, August 17, 2009

Quotes of the day

Having turned gambling, which once was treated as a sin, into a social policy, government looks unusually silly criminalizing online forms of it.--George Will

Obama sips it. Paris Hilton loves it. Mary J. Blige won't sing without it. How did a plastic water bottle, imported from a military dictatorship thousands of miles away, become the epitome of cool?--Anna Lenzer

I'm not in favor of business. I'm in favor of competition.--Megan McArdle

Automobiles are becoming more fuel efficient at a much faster rate than light rail, which gets its power largely from carbon-spewing power plants. That regrettable, counter-intuitive fact is an unintended consequence of "the Prius Effect," as the rise of hybrids and increasingly fuel-efficient cars outstrips the environmental benefits of light rail. --Chuck Plunkett

One unintended byproduct of the current U.S. debate [on healthcare] is that the British will dally in reforming their NHS. It is now harder for them to admit they have a relatively bad system.--Tyler Cowen

My nascent theory is that artists are inclined to view business as not just different from but antithetical to what they do. Artists (at least modern artists) are into self-expression. In other words, they're inherently selfish. Business people, on the other hand, are into selling. This means they have to discern other people's wants and cater to them. Artists call that selling out. --Larry Ribstein

... it is not business that filmmakers dislike, but rather the control of firms by profit-maximizing capitalists. The article argues that this dislike stems from filmmakers' resentment of capitalists' constraints on their artistic vision. Filmmakers' portrayal of business is significant because films have persuasive power that tips the political balance toward business regulation.--Larry Ribstein

They had a different dim sum cart for the white folks. If it had been a soul food restaurant, we’d have had grounds for a lawsuit.--Jason Kuznicki